Apparatuses that electronically read in document images, apply predetermined processing to the electronic image data thus read in, and then carry out optical scanning recording at electrophotographic recording sections based on the electronic image data so that images are recorded/reproduced have been put on the market as digital copying machines, for example.
Recently also marketed are copying machines which store electronically read-in image data in semiconductor memories and read out the image data stored in the semiconductor memories to form images on recording paper, and moreover, improve values of products thereof by adding characteristics unique to digital processing.
In the digital copying machine market, such copying machines have been proposed as systems capable of efficiently processing massive documents with increased capacity of semiconductor memories, or as complex digital machines in which functions of a facsimile, a printer, etc., are integrated.
To use such a digital copying machine to input massive document through a scanner section and process the same at once, or to receive and process massive document data produced by a personal computer or the like in a networked environment, the digital copying machine may be incapable of processing such input in some cases since the semiconductor memory installed therein has only a limited capacity of processing data at once.
To cope with this, recently has been devised installation of an external memory device with a large capacity, such as a hard disk device, so that the device works either by itself or along with a semiconductor memory to process image data of greater volume at once.
Furthermore, a recent digital copying machine is proposed as a device which does not only output image information through a printer section, but also operates in a scanner mode in which it reads image information of an original document with a scanner section installed therein and transmits the image information to an external apparatus such as a personal computer through a network communication device.
In the foregoing scanner mode, since the image information of the original document read in by the scanner section is to be transmitted to an external apparatus such as a personal computer, usually the image information is temporarily stored in a hard disk device or the like and is transmitted in response to a return request from an external apparatus.
Incidentally, in the foregoing arrangement, an output state of a digital copying machine, a printer, etc. in the network environment often appears such that recorded matters as outputs of print jobs instructed by various external apparatuses such as personal computers, various hand-held terminal devices, and facsimile machines are spread around an output section. Therefore, there arises a problem that it is difficult to find an output intended to obtain.
The Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 18911/1988 (Tokukosho 63-18911) discloses a digital copying machine which is, to solve the foregoing problem, equipped with a sheet housing device having respective recorded matter housing spaces for the printer, facsimile, and copy modes so that the digital copying machine and the sheet housing device in combination serve as an output processing system.
With the foregoing digital copying machine, however, in the printer mode particularly, the user who instructs a print job instructs output of images to the output device but often forgets or has a delay to pick up the recorded matters, thereby causing a number of outputted matters to spread around the output section. Therefore, the foregoing digital copying machine does not completely solve the problem.
Besides, a conventional digital copying machine, when used in the scanner mode, requires the user to come to the digital copying machine and conduct many settings for performance in the scanner mode, including the instruction for switch to the scanner mode, a pass word for maintenance of secrecy, and a destination of transmission. This may increase possibility of making errors in the setting for the mode, thereby possibly obstructing smooth completion of an operation in the scanner mode.
On the other hand, the Japanese Publication for Laid-Open Patent Application No. 16355/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-16355 ) teaches an apparatus designed so that in response to an instruction for an image output operation (print job) from an external apparatus in the network environment, the print job is stored and managed along with an ID number, and the print job corresponding to the ID number is completed with output of images when an ID number of an ID card held by a user is identified with the ID number of the user who instructed the output operation. Since the foregoing apparatus does not permit start of output before the user comes thereto to take the outputted matter of the print job, the outputted matter intended to obtain can be obtained without being mixed in other outputted matters.
However, the device disclosed by Tokukaihei 10-16355 does not fully facilitate print job control by management of ID numbers, since, for example, output does not start before the user supposed to take the printed matter arrives there, thereby necessarily making the user wait. Further, application of the ID number management to the scanner mode is not disclosed at all.
Moreover, for example, in the copy mode for reading original document images with a scanner section and outputting read-in images, the foregoing digital copying machine often uses an automatic document feeder in the case where an original document is composed of a plurality of sheets of paper. In this case, the user only has to place the original document on the automatic document feeder, and sheets of the original document are automatically transported one by one to an original document platen of the scanner section, where images of the original document are read and copied. At the same time, a display section provided on an operation panel of the digital copying machine displays the number of sheets already copied or the number of sheets to be copied, by addition or subtraction, to show the user a state of progress of the copying operation.
In the case of the foregoing digital copying machine, however, wherein a copying operation is automatically executed following to start of the operation relating to the inputted job, the user sometimes leaves the digital copying machine after input of the job until completion of the job, particularly in the case where copied sheets to be obtained are a lot. Further, in the printer mode for outputting image data by printing with a networked external apparatus (personal computer, etc.), a user who inputted the image data does not necessarily come to pick up the printed matter promptly.
In the case where the user who inputted image data of the job is thus not at the machine, display of the state of the job in progress while the digital copying machine is executing the job is meaningless.
Furthermore, a recent digital copying machine is designed so that a scanner section for reading in original documents and a printer section for forming images on recording paper in accordance with image data can operate in parallel with respect to different image data, respectively. For example, while an image forming (image output) processing is executed in the printer section, the scanner section is available to conduct a read-in operation with respect to another document at the same time as long as the scanner section is open.
In such a digital copying machine, when, for example, the scanner section is open but the printer section is executing a printing operation, the display section displays a progress state of the printing operation. For the user to use the scanner section in this state, the user is required to switch the display to the setting screen with use of an interruption button or the like and then starts to operate the scanner section. If the user is not accustomed to such an operation of the digital copying machine, there arises a problem that this display of the progress state of the printing operation makes the user misinterpret that the machine is in use and the scanner section is not available, and he/she may wait until the end of the printing operation at the printing section, to use the scanner section.